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Index 

Dear Chandler Friends, 

2 Strategic Vision 

5 Administration, Faculty and Staff 

Recruitment and Retention 

8 Student Enrollment and Retention 

11 Curriculum 

13 Community 

16 Development and Fundraising 

19 Afterschool Program 

20 Summer Program 

In 1950, Tom and Katie Chandler founded our school on 

the following principle: 

The purpose of The Chandler School shall be to stimulate 

its students to attain scholastic achievement consistent with 

their best ability, to inspire them to the set development 

of intellectual curiosity and high moral standards, and to 

develop their athletic skills and sportsmanship. 

While over 60 years has transpired since Chandler’s 

founding, this original principle rings as true today as it 

did back then. The Board of Trustees is very mindful of its 

responsibility to the Chandler community to ensure that 

the school adheres to its founding principle while at the 

same time effecting positive change at the school to best 

prepare our students for an ever-changing world. 

To that end, the Board of Trustees develops a strategic 

plan every five years. The purpose of the plan is to 

articulate for the Chandler community a long-term vision 

for the school. The prior strategic plan ran from 2007 to 

2012, and so a new strategic plan was needed to cover 

the period from 2012 to 2017. 

The building blocks for Strategic Plan 2017 (as our new 

strategic plan has come to be called) were the numerous 

discussions that the Strategic Planning Committee held 

over the course of 18 months with every constituency of 

the Chandler community—the Board, the administration, 

the faculty, the staff, parents, students and alumni. The 

response we received was tremendous. There is a clear 

passion for our school that we felt from all corners of our 

community. 

We gathered together the hundreds of thoughts 

generated from our discussions, organized them into 

topics, whittled down some and combined others. We 

paid close attention to national trends in education and 

spent a good deal of time thinking through how best to 

tailor what we learned to our school, our culture and our 

students. We also made a conscientious effort to avoid 

setting forth broad and general aspirational goals and, 

instead, focused on generating well-defined priorities for 

the school. 

The end result is a comprehensive plan that we hope 

will provide Chandler with a clear and specific vision for 

future excellence. We believe that Strategic Plan 2017, 

along with the many other initiatives being pursued by 

the Board of Trustees and the administration, will serve 

Chandler well in maintaining its recognized leadership as 

a K-8 institution. 

I invite you to join us in celebrating the remarkable 

institution that is Chandler and look forward to your 

continued engagement and support as we work to 

implement Strategic Plan 2017. 

Mark H. Kim 

Chair, Strategic Planning Committee

Strategic 

Vision 

Our strategic vision for Chandler 

School is to continue building on 

a 60-year legacy of shaping our 

school into a K-8 institution that 

provides a rigorous academic 

program, fosters independent, 

critical and creative thinking, and 

instills high ethical standards, 

good character and good 

judgment. 

We believe that it is critical that our students are 

exposed to a wide variety of subject areas and have 

the opportunity to pursue as advanced a curriculum 

in core disciplines as their abilities will allow. We 

recognize that Chandler has an obligation to prepare 

its students for a high technology environment and 

therefore place a particular emphasis on integrating 

the use of technology in the classroom and further 

developing the school’s project-based Science, 

Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics 

(STEAM) curriculum. We also recognize the 

importance of providing a comprehensive program in 

music, the arts and other creative subject areas, as well 

as placing a high priority on promoting the long-term 

health and physical fitness of our students. 

We seek to encourage a self-critical environment in 

which our administration and faculty continually 

examine, challenge and improve the school’s 

philosophy and approach to teaching and in which 

innovation in the classroom is rewarded. To support 

positive change and to implement best practices, we 

aim to provide a broad set of internal and external 

professional development opportunities, with the 

intended goal of exposing our administration 

and faculty to new and different ideas that can be 

translated into a richer classroom experience. 

We view Chandler’s afterschool and summer 

programs as opportunities not only to supplement 

our educational mission, but also to serve 

as incubators for program initiatives that, if 

successful, may be considered for incorporation 

into the school’s core curriculum. We also seek to 

reinvigorate the school’s athletic program, which 

we see as an important ingredient in strengthening 

our community spirit. In addition, we believe 

that in developing leaders, we have an obligation 

to instill in our students a strong commitment to 

ethical behavior, social awareness and community 

service, and therefore look to provide our students 

with meaningful opportunities to give back to their 

communities. 

As we celebrate the opening of our new Middle 

School, we continue to assess our physical plant 

to ensure that we are providing our community 

with the proper facilities required to carry out 

our mission. We recognize that top-quality 

administration and faculty, an innovative 

curriculum, and exceptional facilities cost money, 

and it is incumbent on us to cultivate a culture of 

sustained and broad-based giving that allows us to 

meet our long-term capital needs. 

We believe that if we are able to implement our 

strategic vision successfully, we will achieve the 

level of excellence that is in keeping with our 

school’s history and tradition and that will allow 

us to pass along our rich Chandler legacy for 

generations to come. 

2 Strategic Plan 2012-2017 Strategic Plan 2012-2017 3

Administration, 

Faculty and Staff 

Recruitment and 

Retention 

The engine that makes Chandler 

School run is its administration, 

faculty and staff. Chandler is proud 

of its achievement in recruiting 

an outstanding team of talented 

individuals dedicated to designing 

and implementing a rigorous 

educational program of the highest 

quality. 

We believe that a fresh, innovative and dynamic 

classroom experience, coupled with a highly 

motivated student body and strong family support, 

leads to a more satisfying professional experience 

and generates an environment ideal for attracting 

and retaining the very best administration, faculty 

and staff. We are always looking to improve the 

teaching experience and are mindful that the 

administration must continually work with the 

faculty to improve the process of teacher evaluation 

and constructive feedback, to provide teachers 

with more time to collaborate and innovate, and to 

lessen the burdens of administrative tasks and nonproductive 

meetings. 

We place a high priority on offering our 

administration and faculty competitive 

compensation packages. We also understand 

the value that our professionals place on career 

development and in engaging in opportunities 

to improve their craft. The school therefore aims 

to provide a broad set of internal and external 

professional development opportunities, with 

the intended goal of having our administration 

and faculty consider and introduce innovative 

ideas for use in the classroom, including ideas for 

implementing and improving the school’s projectbased 

STEAM curriculum. 

Strategic Plan 2012-2017 5

In order to achieve our strategic vision for 

administration, faculty and staff recruitment and 

retention, we believe the school must focus on the 

following priorities: 

pp 

Assess recruitment strategies to determine whether 

Chandler is attracting the deepest and highest 

quality pool of candidates from which to select 

new administrators, faculty and staff. 

pp 

Continue to assess periodically salary and benefit 

packages to ensure that Chandler continues to 

provide competitive compensation packages as 

compared with Chandler’s peer schools. 

pp 

Evaluate non-traditional forms of compensation 

and ways to address quality-of-life issues, such 

as the offering of wellness and financial planning 

programs. 

pp 

Assess diversity among administration, faculty 

and staff and determine whether the recruitment 

and retention process is adhering to the school’s 

diversity goals. 

pp 

Provide professional development opportunities 

through on-campus training and encouraging 

attendance at local and national conferences, 

with the intended goal that administration and 

faculty translate these experiences into improved, 

research-based approaches to teaching and an 

evolving curriculum. 

pp 

Maintain a stimulating professional environment 

by encouraging, recognizing and rewarding 

innovative and outstanding teaching and 

curriculum implementation. 

pp 

Expand teacher mentoring, peer review and 

student review to assess and improve faculty 

performance. 

pp 

Increase time for faculty to collaborate, innovate 

and develop cross-curricular lessons by reducing 

inefficient or ineffective meeting time and 

lessening the burden of administrative tasks. 

pp 

Assess whether the administration and faculty has 

staffing and other resources commensurate with 

their responsibilities. 

pp 

Continue to provide a range of community events 

that allow faculty and staff to interact with the 

greater Chandler community. 

p p Encourage the communications department to 

regularly promote Chandler School’s program 

in local and national publications to broaden 

awareness of the school’s achievements among 

potential recruits. 

6 Strategic Plan 2012-2017

Student Enrollment 

and Retention 

Our school’s educational vitality and 

financial soundness depends on a 

stable and enthusiastic community of 

students and families. Attracting and 

retaining those students and families 

at all grade levels is an essential 

and continuing part of the school’s 

mission. 

Chandler School’s outstanding reputation has 

historically yielded a robust applicant pool 

for Kindergarten entry, with the majority of 

students continuing their Chandler education 

through the eighth grade. The school has used the 

opportunities presented by the admissions process 

to shape a rich, diverse and talented student body. 

A successful effort in retaining these students 

through the eighth grade enhances class and 

community cohesion and strengthens the support 

of the school by families who have made a longterm 

commitment and investment in Chandler. 

For the administration and faculty, a stable student 

population also facilitates curricular planning and 

smooth grade level transitions. 

In order to achieve our strategic vision for student 

enrollment and retention, we believe the school 

must focus on the following priorities: 

pp 

Deepen relationships with “feeder” pre-schools 

and expand relationships to include a broader set 

of non-feeder pre-schools. 

pp 

Maintain year-over-year recruitment, retention and 

student success statistics. 

pp 

Create a school brochure to be used in 

connection with the admissions process that sets 

forth the advantages of a K-8 education and that 

highlights Chandler’s advanced curriculum, topnotch 

faculty, integrated use of technology in the 

classroom, comprehensive afterschool program, 

new Middle School facilities, and high school 

placement success. 

pp 

Incorporate in the admissions process a method 

for identifying and factoring into the admissions 

decisions not just academic excellence, but athletic, 

artistic and musical excellence as well. 

pp 

Assess diversity among the student body and 

determine whether the student recruitment, 

admissions and retention process is adhering to the 

school’s diversity goals. 

pp 

Develop a targeted financial aid strategy with the 

goal of enhancing socioeconomic diversity among 

the student body. 

pp 

Enhance the admissions acceptance process to 

ensure that newly admitted families experience an 

enthusiastic, welcoming and sustained response 

from the school. In connection with the acceptance 

process, the school should contact newly admitted 

families promptly following their child’s admission 

to the school and keep in continual communication 

with such families, including through the 

mailing of multiple “welcome” packets, e-mail 

correspondence, telephone outreach, and one-onone 

family mentoring. 

pp 

Implement a process during the admissions process 

for tracking and predicting matriculation so as to 

maintain optimum class sizes. 

pp 

Implement a program targeted at providing Lower 

School parents at all grade levels (not just fifth 

grade) with access to and information about 

the Middle School in order for those families to 

become familiar and excited about the Middle 

School as early in their Chandler experience as 

possible. 

A. The program should make use of open 

houses, faculty and parent ambassadors, 

and student testimonials (including Chandler 

graduates who are attending high school). 

B. The program should highlight the advanced 

and innovative curriculum provided by 

the Middle School, the excellence of the 

Middle School faculty, the state-of-the-art 

Middle School facilities, the unparalleled 

use of technology in the Middle School 

classroom, the natural curriculum 

progression from the Lower School to the 

Middle School, the advantages of not 

exposing middle school students to high 

school distractions, and the high school 

placement success of the Middle School. 

pp 

Implement a formal exit interview process for all 

families departing prior to the eighth grade to 

understand the factors leading to their decision 

to leave the school prematurely and to determine 

whether further changes to the school’s program 

are warranted. 

p p Encourage existing families to introduce 

prospective families to the administration and 

establish a process for them to do so. 


Curriculum 

The hallmark of excellence that 

distinguishes Chandler School from 

its peers is the school’s curriculum. 

We strive to implement a rigorous 

academic program that exposes our 

students to a wide variety of subject 

areas and provides our students 

with the opportunity to pursue as 

advanced a curriculum in core 

disciplines as their abilities will allow. 

We recognize, however, that it is not enough 

for our coursework to be challenging. It also 

must be thoughtful in design. We look to mold 

our students into independent, critical and 

creative thinkers—that is, students who have the 

confidence to challenge existing norms and to 

re-define problems, the freedom to imagine and reimagine 

outside-the-box solutions, and the ability 

to work collaboratively in implementing those 

solutions. 

We also look to prepare our students for a high 

technology environment and therefore place a 

particular emphasis on integrating the use of 

technology in the classroom and further developing 

the school’s project-based STEAM curriculum. We 

seek to encourage a self-critical environment in 

which our administration and faculty continually 

examine, challenge and improve the school’s 

philosophy and approach to teaching and in which 

innovation in the classroom is rewarded. 

In order to achieve our strategic vision for the 

curriculum, we believe the school must focus on 

the following priorities: 

p p Further develop a robust project-oriented STEAM 

curriculum that fosters independent, critical 

and creative thinking, encourages students to 

challenge assumptions, allows for freedom of 

experimentation, emphasizes the synthesis and 

refinement of ideas, rewards imaginative and 

innovative solutions, and teaches students to 

work collaboratively to overcome the practical 

challenges of solution implementation. 


pp 

Create a task force to study and provide 

recommendations with respect to curriculum 

integration, with the goal of improving crosscurricular 

activity and smooth grade-to-grade 

progression in core subject areas. 

pp 

Continue to provide extensive faculty training in 

the use of technological tools in the classroom, 

monitor the effectiveness of the current integration 

of technology into the curriculum, and assess the 

viability and effectiveness of implementing additional 

technological tools in the classroom. 

pp 

Enhance the Middle School curriculum by providing 

additional advanced academic electives, including 

by way of advanced coursework in core subject 

areas (e.g., advanced biology) and coursework in a 

broader range of subject areas (e.g., creative writing, 

economics and computer programming). 

pp 

Enhance the Lower School math program by placing 

a greater emphasis on a conceptual rather than 

answer-oriented approach to learning math, by 

providing more challenging materials for stronger 

math students, and by providing faculty with 

comprehensive training in teaching conceptual math. 

pp 

Encourage, recognize and reward faculty who 

introduce innovative teaching approaches and 

coursework and/or assist students in local, state and 

national competitions. 

pp 

Develop better mechanisms and processes for 

improved communication among administrators, 

faculty and staff regarding issues such as scheduling 

and curriculum initiatives. 

pp 

Experiment with single-teacher art classes to provide 

a greater offering of art courses, with a focus on the 

use of technology in the creative process. 

pp 

Assess ways of providing a year-long sustained music 

curriculum and opportunities for advanced music 

students to collaborate in music. 

pp 

Assess whether the curriculum is placing sufficient 

emphasis on promoting the long-term health and 

well-being of our students, including in the areas of 

nutrition, diet and physical fitness. 

pp 

Explore a positive approach to student discipline 

aligned with the school’s well-defined guidelines for 

character education. 

pp 

Define and implement social awareness and 

community service objectives for the curriculum. 

p p Draw on local and parent resources in 

supplementing the school’s curriculum, including 

strengthening relationships with local institutions 

such as Caltech, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the 

Norton Simon Museum, Huntington Library and 

Gardens, Huntington Hospital, KPCC, and movie 

and television studios. 

Community 

At the heart of Chandler School’s 

success is our strong sense of 

community. It is critical to foster that 

sense of community in both parents 

and students starting at the moment 

that a family’s child receives an 

acceptance letter, throughout the 

child’s time enrolled at the school, 

and for the remainder of the child’s 

life. 

The key to a vibrant community is to create and 

maintain clear channels of communication and 

to achieve widespread parent participation and 

volunteerism in school functions and activities. 

The school must also maintain an active and 

effective system of tracking and communicating 

with alumni and past parents to reinforce the lifelong 

bonds generated by the Chandler experience. 

In order to achieve our strategic vision for 

strengthening our community, we believe the 

school must focus on the following priorities: 

pp 

Improve the process for welcoming and 

mentoring new incoming families, starting from 

the moment a child receives an acceptance letter. 

pp 

Define volunteer expectations for all families and 

communicate this expectation to current parents. 

pp 

Broaden the base of CFA volunteers by 

implementing more flexible board membership 

requirements. 

pp 

Encourage broad attendance to Chandler 

sporting events. 

pp 

Provide increased avenues for parent interaction, 

including through parent forums and casual 

events (e.g., dad’s breakfast). 

pp 

Assess diversity among the Board of Trustees and 

determine whether the trustee recruitment process 

is adhering to the school’s diversity goals. 

pp 

Institute uniform branding of the Chandler 

logo and letterhead and a uniform look to 

presentations, correspondence, invitations, 

e-mail communications, publications and the 

website. 


pp 

Create a formal set of guidelines for 

communicating with the Chandler community 

to streamline communication and reduce 

redundancy in e-mails. 

pp 

Improve the system for building the alumni 

and past parent databases and tracking these 

constituencies. 

pp 

Provide periodic communications with alumni 

and past parents, and organize events and 

activities that allow alumni and their families to 

visit the Chandler campus and stay involved with 

the Chandler community. 

p p Assess whether additional tools would improve 

communication with the Chandler community, 

such as Facebook, Twitter and text messaging, 

as well as a more user-friendly website targeted 

at enhancing the ability of parents to track and 

follow school activities. 


Development and 

Fundraising 

Over the past five years, Chandler 

School has improved its development 

and fundraising capacity by 

implementing successful annual fund 

and capital campaigns that have 

achieved high rates of participation 

among Chandler families, trustees 

and faculty, accompanied by growth 

in alumni and past parent giving. 

Total contributions to each of the 

annual fund and capital campaigns 

have reached approximately $1 

million per year. 

While we are proud of these successes, we strive 

to expand and improve our sources of funding, 

particularly in light of the phases that remain for 

the South Campus project. We recognize that topquality 

administration and faculty, an innovative 

curriculum, and exceptional facilities cost money, 

and it is incumbent on us to continue to cultivate 

a culture of sustained and broad-based giving that 

allows us to meet our long-term capital needs. 

pp 

Educate incoming Chandler families on the 

expectations of giving to the annual fund and 

other campaigns. 

pp 

Develop additional naming opportunities for 

incoming Chandler families. 

pp 

Create a formal program of planned giving 

and develop a program dedicated to increasing 

awareness among the Chandler community of 

the availability of planned giving opportunities. 

pp 

Maximize use of employer matching programs. 

pp 

Provide professional development opportunities 

to the development staff to improve their 

fundraising skill set, including optimizing current 

software use and exploring the development 

programs, practices and tools utilized by other 

institutions. 

pp 

Encourage increased interaction of the 

development staff with the greater Chandler 

community. 

pp 

Assess whether the development staff has 

staffing and other resources commensurate with 

Chandler’s peer schools. 

In order to achieve our strategic vision for finance 

and development, we believe the school must focus 

on the following priorities: 

pp 

Complete the remaining phases of the South 

Campus project and raise funds to upgrade the 

athletic field. 

pp 

Increase giving to the annual fund through the use 

of meaningful stories by administration, faculty, 

students and alumni to explain how funds are 

used for the benefit of the school, and by focusing 

attention on achieving 100% participation rates to 

foster community pride in giving to Chandler. 

p p Ensure that in addition to the annual fund, 

Chandler at all times maintains one giving 

campaign, such as capital or endowment, to 

continue the momentum generated in the past five 

years of raising funds for the long-term needs of 

the school. 


Afterschool Program 

In recent years, Chandler School’s 

Afterschool program has thrived. We 

look to achieve several goals with our 

afterschool program. 

First, the afterschool program provides extended 

hours for our students to supplement their 

education through academic and athletic endeavors. 

Second, the afterschool program serves as an 

incubator for new and innovative programs that, 

if successful, may be considered for incorporation 

into the school’s core curriculum. Third, the 

afterschool program provides our faculty and 

students with additional opportunities to interact 

and reinforce community bonds. 


afterschool program, we believe the school must 

focus on the following priorities: 

pp 

Encourage the use of the afterschool program as a 

“testing ground” for new and innovative programs. 

pp 

Encourage faculty to develop afterschool programs 

within their areas of expertise to keep faculty on 

campus and to provide students with an opportunity 

to explore additional subject matter, including 

afterschool programs designed to offer students the 

opportunity to compete in local, state and national 

competitions. 

pp 

Provide the afterschool program with financial 

analysis support to help price afterschool programs 

so as to test viability and to avoid or minimize 

losses. 

pp 

Ensure that adequate activity and storage space is 

being provided to the afterschool program. 

pp 

Focus on developing more competitive athletic 

teams, including providing on-campus skill 

development programs. 

pp 

Reassess the musical instrument program 

to determine ways of achieving more active 

participation, including the possibility of introducing 

one or more selective musical ensembles. 

pp 

Provide students with meaningful afterschool 

community service opportunities. 

p p Provide parents with easy-to-understand materials 

regarding the various options offered by the 

afterschool program. 


Summer Program 

In addition to making great strides 

in improving the afterschool 

program, the current Afterschool/ 

Summer Program Director has also 

invigorated Chandler School’s 

summer program. With the summer 

program, we aim to bring on 

campus a broad cross-section of 

the San Gabriel Valley community 

and to offer students a rich summer 

experience. 


summer program, we believe the school must 

focus on the following priorities: 

pp 

Assess the proper size, length, structure and 

offerings of the camp and enrichment programs. 

pp 

Encourage the development of unique summer 

offerings that allow Chandler’s summer program 

to stand out among other summer programs. 

pp 

Provide the summer program with financial 

analysis support to help price summer programs 

so as to test viability, to increase revenues, and to 

avoid or minimize losses. 

pp 

Implement a broad-based annual marketing 

campaign to maximize exposure for Chandler 

and its summer program, including to a growing 

number of interested international students. 

p p Use the summer program as an opportunity to 

market Chandler to non-Chandler students and 

their families from the San Gabriel Valley and 

to encourage the submission of applications 

for admission at the conclusion of a student’s 

summer experience at Chandler. 


1005 Armada Drive 

Pasadena, California 91103 

www.chandlerschool.org 

Thank you to the members of the Strategic Planning Committee for 

their time, effort and commitment in developing Strategic Plan 2017. 

Strategic Planning Committee 

Mark Kim, Chair 

Monte Baier 

John Berger ’88 

Jill Bergeron 

Alycia Brown 

Anneke Emerson 

John Finch 

Dan Greenwood 

Peter Hong 

JJ Newman 

Chad Parker 

Anna-Christine Rising 

Kristin Smith 

Anthony Stanley

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